Scottish Labour will go “back to its roots to invest in the future”, the party’s leader has said as she prepares to launch a Holyrood election manifesto.
Kezia Dugdale will be the last of the main party leaders to publish proposals after Nicola Sturgeon detailed the SNP’s pledges on Wednesday.
Committing the party to publishing “the most positive manifesto ever”, Ms Dugdale said she would set out plans to raise £1.2bn for public services using the new tax powers.
But the SNP’s John Swinney said Labour’s manifesto would be a “catalogue of U-turns and flip-flops”.
“Labour is the party of the NHS, the welfare state and the minimum wage. On May 5 we want people to vote for the real alternative to the SNP and the Tories,” Ms Dugdale said.
“We will offer people the length and breadth of Scotland the most positive manifesto ever, with a plan to stop the cuts and invest in the future. There’s nothing inevitable about the cuts that the SNP and Tories have planned – we can choose to do things differently.
“This week we will show exactly what we stand for and who we stand with. We will set out our plans to stop the cuts and invest in our children’s future. And we’ll show how we will do that with a 50p tax rate for people earning over £150,000 a year – the richest 1% in our society.
“These are the right decisions to be making when our public services face nearly £3bn of cuts with the SNP’s plans. Faced with the choice between cutting into Scotland’s future, or using the powers of the Scottish Parliament to protect vital public services, we choose to use the powers.”
Mr Swinney said: “It is no wonder Labour’s manifesto will be the latest of any Holyrood election, when it is clear no one – even in Labour – knows what the Labour party stands for.
“The one thing that is clear is that Labour have walked straight into a Tory trap.
“Labour seem unable to break their link with the Tory party, going out of their way to stand against the people of Scotland’s right to choose their own future and expecting low income households across Scotland to pay for Tory cuts.
“And of course, the complete mess that Labour have got themselves into over Trident is entirely symptomatic of the chaos within the party. Both Kezia Dugdale and Jeremy Corbyn are now in the ridiculous position of each having to advocate a party position on Trident which they don’t support.
“When Labour are not running scared of the Tories, they are running scared of their own party rank and file – and as a result, people in Scotland quite literally do not know what they are voting for.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish Greens said they will use the final full week of campaigning to highlight their commitment to improving pay and conditions for carers.
Alison Johnstone, the party’s health and social care spokeswoman, said: “Carers are undervalued and underpaid. They provide a vital service. Scotland can and must do better on this.
“Earlier this year my Green colleagues on City of Edinburgh Council proposed a funded plan to pay a Living Wage Plus of £9 an hour to social care staff.
“With a strong group of Green MSPs we can push for this policy to be rolled out across Scotland, and our analysis suggests to do this would only cost £20million – an investment that would deliver huge benefits to our society.”
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie will join local campaigners in Fife as he meets voters in Anstruther.
